Days after a visit to Turkana county, Deputy President William Ruto, on Tuesday, inked a Ksh10 Billion deal with World Bank (WB) to boost projects in the arid regions.
During the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to fast-track the implementation of the WB-funded Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP) at his Karen office, DP Ruto stated that the programmes would improve the lives of residents.
"The project, a joint collaboration between Kenya and the World Bank, will support interventions to strengthen livelihoods and create sustainable local economies in benefiting counties of Wajir, Garissa and Turkana.
"It is aimed at improving access to social services, including water and sanitation, primary health care, education and building the resilience of communities in northern Kenya that are host to refugees," he stated.
The agreement will be run by the World Bank, the National Government, and the three county governments.
This project comprises of five components. The first, social and economic infrastructure and services will specifically support improvements in access to quality basic services for the host communities.
The second component, environmental and natural resource management aims to decrease environmental impacts of protracted refugee presence which has resulted in deterioration of the natural resource base because of deforestation resulting from the overexploitation of wood and other non‐timber forest products.
Third among the components is livelihoods program which will support interventions aimed at improving the productivity of traditional and non‐traditional livelihoods and strengthening the resilience of communities.
The fourth component, project management, monitoring and evaluation (M and E), and knowledge sharing objective is to ensure enhanced and effective project management, coordination, and implementation and to support the design of the project’s M and E system, which will be described in detail in the M and E manual.
The fifth component will support the expansion of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD’s) existing Regional Secretariat for forced displacement and mixed migration (FDMM) to include Kenya that will join other DRDIP countries in the regional project steering committee (RPSC) and represented by nominees of its national steering committee and the project coordinator.
